itch.io

Nice little game. Loved the visuals and the blending from slow narrative side scroller to platformer. I liked how you played with nighttime/daytime lighting too.

The platformer controls are a bit rough, barely clipping a tile and losing all momentum felt bad especially in that one section where you have to double jump under obstacles hanging from the ceiling. That was almost rage-game like which didn't fit the rest of the game in terms of difficulty.

The character's monologue and the story in general felt a bit improvised and uninspired. I think it would've worked better if they were talking to an NPC or something instead of just describing their confusion and what they see.

Still a great entry, especially for something made on your own in just a week!

Shot and sweet, I especially like the creative approach to the jam theme.

As is the gameplay feel a bit too simple. I rarely felt like I made any choices or discovered anything, Stage 7 showed some potential, with the non-obvious path being the right one. Maybe you could have less straightforward ways of deducing which spaces are strange instead of the animation when you are close enough. Or have limited moves?

Also, on my screen the player character was blurry, looked like a scaling issue.

That aside, great result for a solo entry, congrats!

Great game! It's polished, the difficulty ramps up very nicely, and the visuals are high quality for a week-long jam. Only thing lacking a bit was theme relevance in my opinion. Maybe the left/right dimensions could have behaved differently or had their unique tiles. Also that jump sound effect startled me the first time I heard it! :^)

The door symbols are stylized version of the keys you're supposed to press, left, middle and right mouse buttons (and Q in the web version). Maybe they should've been even more explicit. The game could do with a gentler introduction though, that's for sure. We didn't get around to building bespoke tutorial rooms but that's something we'll keep in mind if we ever revisit the game. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback!

The janky platforming was frustrating but wrapped around to being kind of funny combined with the narration. Fun entry, and great job making all of it yourself!. I think you could have engaged with the jam theme a bit more though.

Thank you! Fixing that was on our todo-list but we didn't get around to it before the deadline. Let's just say it's Ravenna and her ghostly friend getting into a shouting match if you click too fast.

Thanks for the kind words! Unless you found a bug, there shouldn't be dead ends. Make sure you use your special abilities (Spacebar).

You should be able to open all metal gates. Look for a bell nearby, and use your special ability (Spacebar) to trigger it!

Got stuck at the puzzle with the ticking doors :(. Loved the environment though, I'm a sucker for endless libraries. Awesome for a solo entry! If you plan on expanding on it, maybe some more interesting architecture could be nice. Some Escher alongside the Eco and Borges inspirations. 

I had to resort to the hints to complete the game,, I'm not great at puzzle games though! Really liked the aesthetics, the theme and the storytelling. It maybe could've needed a bit less linearity, some branching in the story or a failure state. Great game though!

I had hoped to implement things like holding down buttons alongside your past selves to open doors and so on, but didn't get around to it. The game idea relied a bit too much on level design to be manageable on my own in the limited time available, I think. Thanks for the feedback in any case!

That's a bit worrying, the game ran smoothly in my testing, but I admittedly didn't check it on anything else but Firefox.

As for the gameplay, you're not missing much, I ran out of time. As is, the game ends when you smash three gems scattered around the world in a single run. You have to dash through enemies and previous iterations of yourself to be able to make it in time. I'll add hints to the description when I get around to updating the itch page so that it's more obvious.

Thanks for checking out my submission!

Cute game and awesome visuals! I loved how expressive the player character is visually, as well as the almost resigned way they're commenting on the frankly absurd situation. Bees, meteorites, sharks? Meteorites again?? Gameplay took a bit to get used to, but the pattern of careful kiting while hunting for fish clicks fast. Reminded me a bit of Don't Starve, especially dealing with bee swarms.

A little bit of feedback if you want:

• I think the player movement isn't normalized? The player moves faster in diagonals than up and down or left and right. Should be an easy fix if not intended
• the pickup sfx is quite a bit louder than others, a bit irritatingly so
• sfx could need some slight volume and pitch variation to avoid repetitiveness, e.g. when picking up lots of stuff
• it took me a bit to figure out how to complete runs, I first thought dying was just the way to get back. Maybe making the portal arrow indicator a bit larger would help, or maybe I'm just blind.
• the flower monster briefly appears before starting its spawn animation, maybe a case of resetting to the wrong animation on instantiation?

Those are all just suggestions for polish really, very solid game all around!

I'd definitely add some SFX yeah. The soundtrack is honestly fine, I just found it not very cohesive between the intro/main menu where it feels more video-gamey and the actual game where it's less so. Custom tracks keeping the high-energy drumlines and airy pads, but with some more retro synths in line with the main menu music would be what I'd try to go for. But it's a lot of time investment for not the greatest payoff, so definitely in the nitpick department.

I don't have any jams on my radar right now, I'll be on the look out for the big ones though when they get announced. I really want to work with a team for once. I do have a little game project I'm working on, and maybe I'll pick up Florordination again after voting ended, you and other encouraging folks definitely motivated me to do so :^).

Very fun and very polished! Loved the 1-bit sprite art and the cute/retro-computing aesthetics. The tutorial is also very well done, the player is told the basics in less than 30 seconds and then the difficulty nicely ramps up so they figure out the rest on their own. At least that's how it felt for me who isn't very familiar with autoclicker and tower defense games.

There really isn't much to criticize, but some minor nitpicks if you want:

• I feel like the main menu visuals clash with the rest of the game, I think keeping it black and white and conveying the difficulty in another way would feel more cohesive.
• audio-wise the liquid DnB works well with the internet/early-2000s vibe, but I think leaning more into the cat/cute vibe like you did in the intro and the main menu could also be nice. Some meow sfx here and there could be cool too
• on the main menu, right clicking adds a blue square to the background, that doesn't seem intentional
• custom animations for enemies instead of the squish and stretch would add some polish

Congrats on delivering such a complete and fun game in a week!

Thank you! I might continue with the game after the jam, I'm not sure yet, I also have other projects I want to work on. The thumbnail was definitely a mistake, it was my first time uploading to itch.io and I didn't realize I was making a thumbnail, I thought it would be a cover image. Had I known, I would've at least framed it differently. Probably the biggest lesson learned so far :^).

Lovely game, nailed the cute-but-uneasy atmosphere! The story is short, but what is there in terms of dialogue and cutscenes works well and both endings feel complete. I really liked the character portraits, the low-res but not quite pixel-art style fits well with the rest of the visuals. The tileset is a bit simple, but works pretty well thematically, giving off a bit of childish vibe.

Some feedback if you want:

• text is quite blurry, a higher project resolution for Dialogic and all other text and sticking the low-res platforming world into a subviewport would be a solution. Another would be using a pixel font at the right font size.
• a few transitions are pretty jarring, with the default clear color being briefly visible.
• the platforming controls are pretty stiff, I'd suggest adding some camera drag and smoothing, as well as accelerations to the player character (accelerate to your target jump/run velocity over a few frames instead of instantly setting it).

Nice game still, I had a great time playing!

By far the most creative interpretation of the theme I've seen! I love how you iterated over the concept and how the game plays like a puzzle game but still tests your reflexes. The difficulty progression feels good, I just got briefly stuck on level 7 because for some reason I forgot you could move and not just dash.

As feedback:

• besides adding audio I think the visuals could need some work, the simple shapes and the arrow theme work well, but a higher resolution and crisp shapes would make it feel cleaner than the current blurry pixel art.
• I'm sure you're aware, but when moving fast enough, it's possible to move through portals without the game registering the collision.
• I would also have liked to be able to navigate the menus with the keyboard, reaching back to the mouse between levels was slightly inconvenient. 

Great game all around, congrats!

Thank you for playing. You shouldn't be able to neutral without letting go of the arrow key for a bit. At least that was the intent, but I wouldn't be surprised if you broke that, it's not as well tuned as it could be. Thanks for the encouraging words!

Thanks! Celeste was a huge inspiration for the player movement, the visuals less so. I ended up with a tiny red-haired protagonist a bit by accident :^).

The wall jump definitely was a bit of a struggle for me to implement, it wasn't easy to design it so that it feels good but doesn't make scaling walls trivial. The wall slide animation not having any transition from other animations also makes it feel less smooth. Addressing that probably would help a lot in making it feel better, even without tweaking numbers. Thank you for the feedback!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the visuals, I don't have much of an art background so it's something I've been working on getting better at.

Rebindable controls definitely would've been nice to have, but I  kept prioritizing other things. Having the up arrow also serve as a jump would be tricky, because it would conflict with the dash direction input, which is read when the dash key is pressed. Pressing up would be ambiguous as it could either be a jump or direction for a dash a few frames later. This is fine for the left and right arrows, because it's intuitive to transition from running into a horizontal dash, tiny jumps before vertical dashes would feel clunky though I think. But then again, with rebindable controls players could set that up however they want, it's just not something I'd implement as default behavior.

Stunning art, you nailed the cartoony-cyberpunky aesthetic in the character designs, the UI, the music, everything! The game really feels coherent and well polished.

I liked the way you implemented the mini-games by subverting the  classic visual novel UI. I found the timed events really well balanced too, often succeeding while just short of running out of time. Also neat detail of changing the order of actions on subsequent playthroughs, threw me off at first :^)

Great game all around!

Very cute! Despite reading the description before playing I clicked through two scenes before I understood when I was supposed to draw stuff, maybe a more interactive tutorial would've helped. Once I got it though I just restarted  and really enjoyed your game, great job!

Amazing what level of polish you reached in just a week, while also engaging with the theme. Experiencing  "noo I just barely messed up that jump, wait I can just rewind and try again" was really nice and made sure the theme was always present. I didn't get the plot's relevance for the theme, I guess I must've missed most of it as I ended up not finding anything new after a while of running around.

I found the sfx of the player landing a bit confusing, as it's very similar to the one they make when they get hurt. I'd suggest leaving it out altogether or replacing it with just louder footsteps instead, especially since it plays repeatedly when just jumping around the map. I also wish there'd be more reasons to use the rewind mechanic, maybe platforming sections where falling off kills the player instead of just bringing them back to street level, so that rewinding would be encouraged more.

Awesome game all around still, congrats!

Thanks! I realized in a playtest after the submission that the levels don't really  accommodate people who aren't that comfortable with the controls. If I could redo the game I'd definitely make the earlier screen more accessible so that everyone can experience more of the game. The screen which introduces the dash for instance really doesn't need the platforms to be that far apart. It would've been enough for them to be inaccessible with jumps but easily accessible with dashes instead of just barely.

Thank you!

Thank you so much! It was my first time working with a bright palette, a lot of the aesthetics are really just happy little accidents caused by working with colors I don't typically use. The palette is Curiosities by sunikapan on lospec by the way, if you want to use it for your own art.

Now that you mention it, there definitely should be a dialogue indicator, I must've accidentally removed it during development, but it was there at some point :^). It had a pretty boring animation though, I'll definitely keep that in mind as a detail for future projects.

Very polished and a fun play, good job! I never got to see "things go wrong". Depending on what you want to do narratively, I think it might be cool to add some dynamic balancing based on how the player has been doing up to now. That way every player gets to see the protagonist fail at least one or two times, without being downright unfair.

Cute aesthetics! I'd suggest making the camera a bit less snappy. Some smoothing and dragging could go a long way.

Thank you for the kind words!

Thanks for playing!

Great visuals, left me wanting for more!

Lovely art, and awesome sound design. The little jingles were especially nice! I was kind of hoping/ waiting for a twist  given the jam theme, but still a great play.

Another way to deal with accidental clicks is to add a slight delay before the upgrades can be interacted with. It's less clunky than a confirm dialogue. You'll have to tweak the delay length though to avoid it feeling unresponsive instead.

Congrats on the submission, loved the visuals!

Incredibly polished and a cool concept, though I feel like you could've engaged with the jam theme some more. Very impressive visuals and audio work!

Thanks you!

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thanks for the suggestion, I added a notice to the game description. I saw the problem too in a IRL playtest, but after the deadline. In their case it worked out, because you can also advance dialogue using intuitive keys like enter and space. It did make me wonder how I could've communicated using C and arrow keys to players ingame in a clean way.

Thank you! I definitively would've loved to develop the story some more and introduce some actual drawbacks to accepting those suspicious offers for resurrection.